1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the exchange of financial information over a global communication network. More particularly, the invention relates to centrally storing financial information received from mobile users and subsequently providing that information back to the respective users so that it can be integrated into the users"" personal finance software.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computer-based recordkeeping of financial information by individuals has been extremely popular in recent years. With improvements in, and the wide-spread increase in the popularity of, personal computers, more and more individuals have begun using home desktop computers to compile their financial records. Today, software packages for use on personal computers allow users to track their investments and loans, bank and pay bills online, monitor expenditures, create detailed financial reports and prepare tax returns. One such personal finance application is Quicken(copyright) deluxe 98 manufactured and sold by Intuit, Inc. of Mountain View, Calif. The various features of this software package are fully described in the software user""s manual entitled xe2x80x9cGetting More from Your Money,xe2x80x9d 2nd printing (Intuit part number 250036) published in October 1998, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
The use of personal finance software has enabled users to more effectively control their finances which, naturally, leads to more efficient utilization of personal resources. For example, by monitoring monthly expenditures on dining, automobile-related expenses, utilities and/or healthcare, individuals are now, more than ever, capable of controlling such expenses. Moreover, individuals using personal finance software are more capable of predicting their financial obligations well into the future. Accordingly, individuals can now better predict whether they have the financial wherewithal to fulfill the obligations associated with potential financial transactions. These and other benefits of using personal finance software on home computers has yielded a virtual revolution in the ability of individuals to control their personal finances.
A number of deficiencies associated with such personal finance applications, however, arise from the facts that most personal finance applications are customizable and are resident on personal computers that remain stationary in the user""s home. Generally, a user defines a particular financial profile (i.e., the personalized set of values selected to, at least in part, define a user""s own financial model) when using a personal finance application. This financial profile describes the user""s financial relationships and obligations, assets and other modalities by which the user creates or describes financial transactions. By way of example only, one financial profile parameter may describe the types of accounts utilized by an individual. Some of the possible values for the account parameter may include a checking account, a savings account, a credit card account, a money market account, a liability account, a bills/payables account, an asset account, an invoice/receivables account, a cash account, etc. Numerous other examples of financial profile parameters and parameter values are disclosed herein and others will readily occur to those of skill in the art.
While the above-discussed attributes of personal finance software packages offer many advantages to users, they also virtually inescapably lead to the limitation that, in order to input financial transaction information, a given user must have access to the computer in the user""s home. In part, this is because, once customized, the financial profile of each user""s personal finance application is unique. For example, each profile may include a different set of accounts, categories and, often, classes to permit the user to more efficiently organize transactions. Similarly, each value in each set of accounts, categories and classes can have a user-specified name. Moreover, insofar as a given personal finance application will, at any point in time, contain an accumulated amount of previously inputted financial information, users cannot practically utilize personal finance applications other than their own. Accordingly, a user who wishes to use a personal finance application must, as a practical matter, return to the same computer each time new transaction information is to be added to the application.
This deficiency leads to the possibility that delays in entering information will yield errors in the inputted transaction information, or worse, will lead to omissions to enter such information entirely. For example, a user on a day-long shopping trip will typically purchase items at a number of different stores, stop for gasoline and dine out twice before returning home. When the user finally gets the opportunity to access the user""s personal computer to enter the transaction information for the day, the user may have forgotten some details of a given transaction or may have entirely forgotten about some transactions. Such errors may not be corrected, if at all, until much later. Therefore, such errors will skew all further financial analyses and reports which rely on the integrity of the information entered into the personal finance software.
Deficiencies of the general nature discussed above, are particularly acute when the user is away from home for an extended period of time such as while on a vacation or business trip. In cases such as this, when a user""s personal computer may be inaccessible for weeks on end, the likelihood of compromising the integrity of the user""s financial records increases markedly. For example, a week-long vacation easily could result in dozens of financial transactions totaling thousands of dollars. Obviously, significant delays in recording such transactions can have a substantial impact on the quality of the information subsequently entered into and retrieved from a personal finance application.
Attempts have been made to reduce the chance of erroneous entries being made in personal finance applications by increasing the timeliness with which transactions are recorded. For example, the advent of personal digital assistants (xe2x80x9cPDAxe2x80x9d), such as the Palm Pilot(copyright) made by 3 Com, Inc. of Milpitas, Calif., can now be used to promptly record personal financial transactions as long as a user has a PDA at the time of a given transaction. In particular, personal finance software designed to integrate with, and to complement, companion software on a home-based personal computer is now available for PDA""s. With a PDA and such software, a user simply enters financial transaction information on the PDA and, upon returning home, downloads the recorded transactions into the user""s personal computer. Since such PDA software products are compatible with the desktop version of the personal finance software, they enable users to capture checking, credit card and cash transactions while on the road. Naturally, such systems have increased the accuracy of personal financial recordkeeping.
The use of PDA""s, however, has not entirely solved the problems of erroneous and/or omitted entries because, for example, there remains a significant number of individuals who do not have PDA""s. Thus, individuals who dislike PDA""s and/or who are unwilling to bear the often significant expense of purchasing and using a PDA continue to be plagued by the above-described deficiencies. Moreover, attempts to enter financial transactions on a PDA can be thwarted if a user inadvertently leaves the user""s PDA at home or if the user""s PDA is damaged in some way.
Therefore, there remains a need in the art for alternative systems, methods and related software products for recording personal financial transactions by individuals who do not have immediate access to their personal computers.
There remains an additional need in the art for alternative systems, methods and related software products which are capable of (1) temporarily storing financial information provided by a plurality of users while preserving the confidentiality of each user""s information; and (2) permitting those users to subsequently retrieve the stored information so that it can be integrated into the user""s personal finance software.
There remains yet another need in the art for alternative systems methods and related software products of the type described above which offer users an optimal combination of simplicity, reliability, efficiency and versatility.
The present invention satisfies the above needs, and overcomes the above-stated and other deficiencies of the prior art, by providing systems, web-sites, methods and related software products that enable users to temporarily store and subsequently retrieve financial transaction information in a simpler, more timely and more cost effective manner. Generally, the present invention makes these and other benefits possible by providing a central database (preferably coupled to a web-site) that is accessible via a communication network and that has the ability to receive financial transaction information from individual users, store such information and subsequently provide such information to the respective users. The particular manner in which the database stores and provides this financial information is defined by a number of financial profile parameters which are preferably supplied by the users. If the users advantageously specify these parameters, the transaction information may be easily integrated into each user""s personal finance software resident on the user""s personal computer. Alternatively, a predetermined and generic financial profile can be used by the database to assist information upload and subsequent download, there being a likelihood that any given user can effectively use the database financial profile. The present invention, thus, enables the users to upload financial information to the database from a wide variety of remote input devices, via the communication network, and subsequently permits the users to download and integrate that information into their respective personal finance applications.
The system embodiments of the present invention generally comprise a plurality of input devices, client computers (each having a user-specific personal finance application) and a web-site server with a database. The input devices, client computers and web-site server are communicatively linked via a communication network so that a plurality of users can temporarily store and/or manipulate financial transaction information on the server from any of the input devices. Each user can also transmit financial profile information to the server. In one embodiment, the profile describes a user""s accounts and categories. It may also, optionally, describe a user""s classes. The profile information enables the creation of financial profiles which correspond with the unique profiles of each user""s financial application. This, in turn, simplifies remote entry of information, subsequent download of that information and integration of such information into each user""s personal finance application. Therefore, when the user subsequently accesses a respective client computer having the user""s customized personal finance application, the user can download the previously stored information and, at least partially automatically, integrate the information into the user""s finance application.
Certain embodiments of the present invention take the form of a web-site for temporarily storing financial information belonging to a plurality of users so that the users can provide information to the web-site from respective first computers and so that users can subsequently retrieve that information from respective second computers which each have a personal finance application with a user-specific profile. In such embodiments, the web-site is accessible via a global communication network and includes a database which is communicatively linked to the communication network. The database can store financial information provided by the users and includes a plurality of, preferably user-specific, profiles. At least some of these profiles have a financial profile which corresponds to that of the profiles of respective personal finance applications.
Other embodiments of the present invention encompass methods of temporarily storing financial information, which is provided by a plurality of users so that the users can subsequently retrieve the financial information via a communication network. Generally speaking, these methods entail receiving identification and financial profile information via the communication network from any of the plural users, the identification information being user-identification and/or profile-identification information. Additionally, financial information to be temporarily stored is preferably received and associated with the identification and financial profile information so that, upon request, the financial information can be retrieved by the user. Finally, the financial information is then stored. In some embodiments, information retrieval requests can subsequently be received, via the communication network, from any of the plural users. If so, these method embodiments of the present invention entail distributing the requested financial information to the respective plural users.
Still other embodiments of the present invention are generally directed to methods of establishing a user-specific profile on a web-site which is accessible via a global communication network and which has an associated database for storing financial transaction information received from a plurality of users. Such methods comprise receiving identification information and financial profile information from the plurality of users via the communication network. Then the financial profile information is associated with the identification information and stored in the database. The database profile can then be periodically updated, for example, each time a user connects to the web-site.
One significant benefit offered by the present invention is a reduction in the probability that erroneous entries could be made in a user""s personal finance application. One manner in which this benefit is realized is by increasing the timeliness with which financial information can be recorded. With the advent of the present invention, users no longer need to directly access their personal computers or PDA""s in order to input financial transactions. Instead, users can record financial transactions from any of the nearly ubiquitous input devices, such as personal computers, which provide access to a communication network such as the Internet. In one embodiment of the invention, the information can even be automatically delivered from another web-site where a user has consummated a transaction. In this case, the possibility of human error is entirely eliminated and recordation occurs at least substantially, and preferably virtually, instantaneously.
The possibility of erroneous entries occurring is further reduced because the present invention offers the ability to input financial transaction information from remote input devices in the same manner as a given user would input such information on the user""s own personal computer. More specifically, because the database preferably stores each user""s account list, category list and class list, a user is able to store transaction information as easily as if they were entering the transaction into their personal finance application directly. Naturally, this feature reduces the possibility of erroneous entries because it reduces the possibility of confusion. Finally, the present invention reduces the possibility of erroneous entries even more effectively than the use of personal digital assistants (PDA""s) in the related art. This is because the present invention does not require any additional physical equipment. Thus, the chance of a failure to input information because a PDA was forgotten or damaged is eliminated.
The present invention also offers the benefit of increased convenience for a number of reasons. First, unlike the use of PDA""s, the present invention does not entail the burden of carrying additional equipment. Moreover, since the present invention is preferably able to store on the web-site a copy of the financial profile of each user""s personal finance application, each user can quickly and easily store and retrieve information in a manner which is customary to each user. This feature also facilitates subsequent download of stored information and automatic integration of such information into the user""s personal finance application. Finally, the skyrocketing popularity of personal computers and communication networks such as the Internet means that it is becoming more convenient to use the present invention with every day that passes.
Still another benefit offered by the present invention is that all of the above-discussed benefits are now available to users at virtually no additional expense. Unlike the above-discussed related art, the present invention does not require the purchase of any additional equipment such as a personal digital assistant. Moreover it is expected that in most circumstances users will be able to access an appropriate communication network at little cost, if any. This is in contrast to the Internet access fees customarily assessed to users of personal digital assistants. In short, the present invention is an improvement over the prior art in that it offers all of the benefits of storing financial transaction information on a personal digital assistant, without any of the associated deficiencies of such a system.
Numerous other advantages and features of the present invention will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art from the following detailed description of the invention, from the claims and from the accompanying drawings.